# Who does India trade with? > India's exports reached $291 bn in manufactures in 2024, but a yawning deficit with China and a surge in fuel imports shape the story. **Who India sells to and buys from: the trade partner picture** India's merchandise trade is a story of transformation. In 2024, manufactured goods exports touched $291 billion, up from just $5 billion in 1980. Refined petroleum and chemicals have joined the basket, lifting fuels and mining exports to $90 billion. But the import side remains dominated by energy and machinery, with China alone sending $127 billion worth of goods. The top‑five export partners now take 39.4% of shipments, down from 43.7% in 2000, a sign of gradual diversification. Still, a large monthly deficit persists, and the Russia oil surge has rearranged supply lines. This page walks you through the partners, the products, and the imbalances that define India’s trading relationships. India’s trading relationships are the product of a 45‑year export boom. Manufactured goods now sit at the centre, but the import bill is larger, driven by energy and capital goods. Each chart on this page answers a layer of the same question: who is India trading with? ## What does India sell abroad, and how has the export basket changed over 45 years? The top‑left chart traces four product groups from 1980 to 2024. Manufactures took off from $5.04 billion to $291.02 billion, making it the dominant category. Fuels and mining exports, almost non‑existent in 1980 at $0.68 billion, shot to $90.28 billion, reflecting India’s emergence as a refining hub. Chemicals exports rose from $0.36 billion to $66.08 billion, and agricultural exports grew from $2.84 billion to $52.26 billion. The basket has shifted: raw farm goods are no longer the headline. Today, a car part, a smartphone, or a litre of petrol is more likely to leave India’s ports than a sack of rice. This matters because who buys these things, and what they pay, sets the stage for everything that follows. ## Who are India’s top export destinations? The next chart ranks every country by how much Indian merchandise they bought in 2024. While the full list stretches past 200 nations, the largest markets cluster in North America, West Asia, and Asia. One visible pattern is that many of these top partners are also places where Indian refined petroleum, engineering goods, and textiles end up. The short version: India sells to a wide world, but the heavy hitters are important, they keep factory floors busy and ports humming. ## Where do India’s imports come from? The import partner chart flips the lens. The list is different: East and Southeast Asian countries dominate, and the Middle East is large because of crude oil. China usually sits at the top. This chart exposes why India runs a trade deficit: the geography of our supply is much more concentrated than the geography of our sales. The things India needs, fuel, electronics, machinery, come from a smaller set of countries, often at prices set by global markets. ## What are the biggest items India exports? This bar chart breaks merchandise exports into HS product chapters for 2024. Electrical machinery and equipment topped the list; the chapter covering phones, transformers, and circuits alone accounted for billions. Next came petroleum products, vehicles, pharmaceuticals, and articles of apparel and clothing. The mix confirms the transformation: India is shipping high‑value factory output, not just traditional crafts. For the average reader, this means that when you hear "Indian exports," you should picture a mobile phone component or a pill vial as much as a cotton shirt. ## What does India import the most? On the import side, the bar chart tells a raw‑material story. Crude petroleum and natural gas sit at the top, followed by electronic integrated circuits, gold, and machinery. Fertilizers also feature heavily, $7.7 billion in 2024. These are the must‑haves that power farms, factories, and households. Because India cannot yet produce enough of these at home, the import bill stays high. That is the genesis of the deficit. ## How is India’s trade doing right now? The monthly line chart tracks merchandise exports and imports from May 2020 to April 2026. The latest month recorded $43.56 billion in exports and $71.94 billion in imports, leaving a gap of about $28 billion. The Covid dip, the post‑2021 bounce, and a more recent plateau are all visible. This high‑frequency view confirms that, while exports have grown, imports have expanded faster, keeping the monthly deficit wide. ## What does India buy from abroad, and why? Returning to annual data, the product‑group import chart shows the structure behind the deficit. Fuels and mining imports reached $265.52 billion in 2024; manufactures, at $327.33 billion, included $163.86 billion in machinery and transport equipment. Agriculture imports stood at $45.66 billion. The picture is straightforward: India buys energy and heavy machinery. These are not luxuries, they are inputs that run the economy. The deficit is, in this sense, a side effect of development. ## Why is India’s trade with China so lopsided? The China‑specific chart puts two lines side by side. Imports from China rose from $1.48 billion in 2000 to $126.96 billion in 2024. Exports to China, however, grew only from $0.73 billion to $14.9 billion. The result is a deficit of over $110 billion, far larger than with any other partner. China ships electronics, machinery, and chemicals that Indian factories and power grids depend on. Indian sales to China, mostly iron ore and some chemicals, are a fraction. This imbalance is not a one‑year story; the gap has been widening for two decades, and it is the single biggest trade challenge visible in the data. ## How did Russia suddenly become a huge supplier? The Russia chart captures a geopolitical shock. Before 2022, imports from Russia were modest, a few billion dollars a year. By 2024, they jumped to $67.15 billion, almost entirely from crude oil bought at discount during the Ukraine‑sanctions period. Exports to Russia, at $4.84 billion, remain small. The lines show how fast a trade map can redrawn when events shift. Russia now sits among India’s top suppliers, a position it reached in less than two years. ## Which regions get most of India’s exports? The multi‑line regional export chart spans 2000‑2024. Europe & CIS and North America are neck‑and‑neck at $90.35 billion and $89.15 billion respectively. East & Southeast Asia receives $77.2 billion, the Middle East $72.25 billion, Africa $36.44 billion, and South Asia $26.5 billion. The spread is reasonably even across three continents. This geographic balance means that a slowdown in one region does not typically derail total exports, a feature that Indian policymakers often highlight. ## Which regions does India rely on for imports? Imports by region, however, are heavily skewed. East & Southeast Asia tops the chart at $252.92 billion, driven by China. The Middle East follows at $149.08 billion, Europe & CIS at $140.36 billion, and North America far behind at $49.31 billion. The concentration in Asia is stark. Two regions account for more than half of all imports. This asymmetry is the source of the deficit and a reminder that India’s energy and electronics supply chains are not yet diversified. ## Is India too dependent on a few customers? The final chart answers the concentration question. The share of exports going to the top‑five partners fell from 43.7% in 2000 to 39.4% in 2024. The decline, while gradual, signals that India is finding buyers beyond the old established markets. This is a positive drift. A more diversified customer base cushions against shocks, such as a trade spat with any single country. Put together, the charts show a trading nation that is growing, still importing more than it exports, but slowly spreading its risk. ## Sources - WTO merchandise trade statistics (annual and monthly), via trade‑derived dataset. - UN Comtrade data for partner‑country and HS‑chapter breakdowns. --- Source: [This Indian Life](https://thisindianlife.today/articles/who-does-india-trade-with/) · Updated 2026-06-03. Licensed CC BY 4.0. Please cite as "This Indian Life — https://thisindianlife.today".